These are devotionals written by Alisa Girard from 2000-2001.
Never Too Young
Jeremiah 1:6-8 “Oh Lord God,” I said, “I can’t do that! I am far too young! I am only a youth!” “Don’t say that,” He replied, “for you will go wherever I send you, and speak whatever I tell you to. And don’t be afraid of the people, for I, the Lord, will be with you and see you through.” (LB)
Jeremiah was a very young man when God sent him as a prophet to the land of Judah. Right away Jeremiah felt unqualified because of his age, but God quickly corrected him and challenged him to fulfill his destiny. Here is a guy who went through enormous trials in his ministry. He was not allowed to marry, threatened, put in stocks, forced to flee from the king, tried for his life, publicly humiliated and thrown into a cistern! If there has ever been anyone who could relate to the hardship of teenage life, it was Jeremiah!
Paul said in 1 Timothy 4:12, to “not let anyone look down on you because of your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” God is just waiting for young people to give Him their lives so He can use them to do mighty things!
Don’t think because you are young that you have to wait until you are older to be effective for Christ. Let Him use you now in your school, work, church, and wherever you go. Ask Him what you should say and where you should go, and He will show you! Not everyone is called to not marry, be locked in shackles or put on trial, but we are all called to stand up for what is right. You can do that by showing love to those around you and being respectful to parents, teachers and friends. Let the light and love of Jesus shine in your life!
Love, Alisa
Are you hungry?
Matthew 5:6 says: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.”
This is something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. When our physical bodies are hungry or thirsty, we become very uncomfortable, restless or irritable. Without food and water, eventually, we would die! It’s not so different with our spiritual life. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, he made this comparison when he said: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Matt. 4:4) He later compared spiritual life with water when he met the woman at the well (John 4:6-26). He said to her: “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst again.” I think that God is trying to make a point to us that it is so very important that we feed our spirit just as we feed our body. When our body is not fed, there comes desperation to find food and water. How many times have we become lazy in reading the Bible and prayer? Just as it is up to us to put food into our mouth, chew and swallow, it is up to us to open the Bible, read and ponder. It is up to us to get away to a private place to open our mouth and talk to God. The amazing thing about it is that just like a big healthy meal or a tall glass of cold water on a hot day, spending time with God leaves us filled, satisfied and refreshed! I would challenge us all to take care of our spirit like we take care of our body. In the end, the body will die, but the spirit never will!
Love, Alisa
GET DRESSED!
Imagine for a moment what it is like in the dead of winter. With temperatures below freezing, and snow piled two feet high, you are getting ready to go outside. Would you even consider going out in shorts and a T-shirt? Of course not! You would bundle up layer after layer finishing with your warmest winter coat. Just as you would never think about going outside without the proper attire, we should never consider starting our day without putting on the armor of God. My next few devotions will each deal with one of the pieces of that armor. If you have never heard about the armor of God, get ready because this is amazing stuff!
Many times throughout the Bible the Christian life is compared to war. I Corinthians 10:4 says: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God.” In I Timothy 1:18 the apostle Paul is instructing the young pastor Timothy on how to fight the good fight. If God didn’t know that we could win every battle, He would not instruct us to fight! As in every war, there are weapons for offense, and armor to protect and provide defence, Ephesians chapter 6 lists all the pieces of armor that we need to wear in order to wage a good warfare.
The first piece of armor I want to talk about is the most basic. Imagine if you were going out to war. What would be the most important thing that you would want to protect? One strong blow to the head and it would be over. So, I would want to be wearing one serious helmet! Ephesians 6:17 says: “And take the helmet of salvation.” Simple, first you must be saved. I’m sure there are people reading this that may not know what it means to truly be saved. The Bible says in Romans 3:23 that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That means that no matter how nice a person is, or how many good deeds he or she has done, or how many times we have been to church, we are all still sinners. Because we are sinners we cannot approach God in that state. God wanted so much to have relationship with us, so he had to find a way to bridge the gap. He sent His son Jesus to live a perfect, sinless life on earth, and then be brutally killed as a sacrifice for our sins. Jesus then defeated death forever by rising from the dead and returning to Heaven with a promise to return for us one day.
Jesus is the only way to God. There is no other way. Jesus Himself said in John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Romans 10:9 says: “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.” If you have never taken that first step of receiving Jesus as your Savior, and would like to, pray this prayer with me today:
“Dear Jesus, I believe that you are God’s only begotten Son. I believe that you died and shed your blood to pay for my sins and you are my Savior. I believe that you rose from the dead giving me eternal life. Please come into my heart and life, forgive me for my sins, and be my Lord and my God. I repent of my sins and give the rest of my life to you. Fill me with your Holy Spirit. Thank you for loving me so much. In your name I Pray. Amen.”
You have believed in your heart, now you need to confess it with your mouth and tell someone! Don’t be ashamed! You have successfully put on the first piece of armor. Now, find a good church, read the Bible, and talk to your Savior. Also stay tuned because there is more to come!
Love, Alisa
Armor – Part 2 of 4 (01-15-2002)
Eph. 6:13 “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”
Last time, we studied the first piece of armor, which is the helmet of salvation. The helmet covers the most vulnerable area, the head. Imagine yourself in a war. You are wearing a strong piece of iron that is protecting your head, now think of what you would want covered next. When I think of a “knight in shining armor”, the first thing I think of is a large, shining breastplate. The breastplate covers and protects all the vital organs including the heart, liver and lungs. In war, you could probably live through an injury to the leg or arm or foot, but a blow to the heart or lungs, and you wouldn’t have much of a chance, so you can see how important a breastplate is! So what is the “spiritual” breastplate? Eph 6:14 describes it as a “breastplate of righteousness.” So what protects us from a fatal blow? Righteousness! The next obvious question is : “So what exactly does righteousness mean?” It is literally translated as “equity (or justice) of character or action.” In other words, in order to be righteous, we need to make sure that all of our actions line up with what is right. Becoming a Christian is not just a one-time prayer. It is an actual lifestyle change. It means not living for what you think is good, but what God thinks is good. A Christian who does not seek after righteousness is like a police officer being involved in a shoot-out without wearing a bullet proof vest! That would be stupid! I’m so glad that we never have to wonder about the standard of righteousness, because it is all clearly laid out in the Bible. Any decision we are faced with can be answered if we know God’s word and hide it in our hearts. The first step to living a righteous life is to “Not be conformed to this world, but be TRANSFORMED by the renewing of your mind.” (Rom. 12:11,12) We have to start thinking like God thinks! You see, its not just one particular action, it’s a continual way of life. So strap on that breastplate of righteousness, and pray that God will daily change your mindset to conform to His! Ask Him to show you what grieves his heart or makes it rejoice, because we can be righteous because JESUS is in us. Your friends may not understand why you make certain decisions, or say no to certain movies, music or parties, but the most important thing is to be right with God. If you and I don’t stand up, who will?!
Armor – Part 3 of 4 02-01-2002
Eph. 6:14 “Stand, therefore, having girded your waist with truth”
In the last two devotions in the series: “Get Dressed”, we discovered that in order to even get started as a warrior, first we have to put on the helmet of salvation and the breastplate of righteousness. The next step is “girding” our waist with truth. The word “gird” in the Greek language means literally to “fasten one’s belt”. Let’s think about that in physical terms. The belt is what holds everything together; it keeps it all in place. That is the place that truth can have in all our lives! Jesus said in John 8:32, that “you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”. The Bible also says: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15) The word of God IS truth! It is so important that everything we face or think about is measured up against the word of God. There have been so many times in my life when someone would say to me “This is right, or this is wrong, or this is okay, or not okay.” We are responsible to find out what God has to say about things, and not just to accept what people say as facts. That is what will keep us together and in place. The Bible warns us that “In the last days people will be lovers of themselves,. . .disobedient to their parents,. . . unholy,. . .lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” (Taken from 2 Timothy 3:1-4) Sound familiar? These things are so hard to fight…even for Christians! Just because we have begun a new life with God doesn’t mean the devil won’t try to drag us back into old things, deceive us or distract us. It is so important to read God’s word every day. It’s like food. We can’t live without it! With the truth of God’s word in our hearts, we are ready to face the battle! “Thy word have I hidden in my heart that I may not sin against you” Ps. 119:11
Armor: Get Dressed Part 4 03-07-2002
So now that we have the belt of truth holding everything together, it’s time to defend ourselves! In Eph. 6:16, it says: “above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one”. So faith is our shield? How does that work? Everyone has faith in something, whether it’s a person, a religion, the chair you’re sitting in, or even nothing. Think about it! No one can say that they don’t have faith in anything, because even that statement proves that they have faith that “nothing” will save them. That’s a risk I’m just NOT willing to take. So let’s talk about what faith really is. In the original Greek the word “faith” literally means: “persuasion, or moral conviction of religious truth”. In other words, to have faith means to believe in the truth of Jesus Christ. Just that belief alone will protect us from so many of the attacks of the enemy. I can, off the top of my head, think of more than five times in the New Testament where someone received healing from Jesus BECAUSE of their faith in Him. Romans 1:17 says that “the just shall live by faith”. How many times in our lives do we drop our shield of protection because of our lack of faith? Every time we hold on to something we are supposed to let go of, or do something outside of the will of God, it shows a lack of faith. I want to make sure that in a world of “fiery darts” and temptations that I don’t drop my shield an inch. I can remember the times I have, and the result has never been pleasant for me. I just create a situation that God has to get me out of! It’s so important that we try with all our might to stay strong and obedient to God so that we can move forward instead of standing still ducking under the fire of the enemy. Let’s move forward with our shields held high trusting and having faith in God. He knows what He’s doing! Ask the Lord today to show you the areas of your life where you are not having faith in Him. Ask him to reveal the deepest corners of your heart where your shield is down. Matthew 17:20 says that faith can move mountains!
Fight Against the Devil (12-03-2001)
Eph. 6:14 “Stand, therefore, having girded your waist with truth”
I love Eph. Chapter 6 because it shows us how to fight against the devil in our lives here on earth. In order to even get started as a warrior, first we have to put on the helmet of salvation and the breastplate of righteousness. The next step is “girding” our waist with truth. The word “gird” in the Greek language means literally to “fasten one’s belt”. Let’s think about that in physical terms. The belt is what holds everything together; it keeps it all in place. That is the place that truth can have in all our lives! Jesus said in John 8:32, that “you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”. The Bible also says: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15) The word of God IS truth! It is so important that everything we face or think about is measured up against the word of God. There have been so many times in my life when someone would say to me “This is right, or this is wrong, or this is okay, or not okay.” We are responsible to find out what God has to say about things, and not just to accept what people say as facts. That is what will keep us together and in place. The Bible warns us that “In the last days people will be lovers of themselves,. . .disobedient to their parents,. . . unholy,. . .lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” (Taken from 2 Timothy 3:1-4) Sound familiar? These things are so hard to fight…even for Christians! Just because we have begun a new life with God doesn’t mean the devil won’t try to drag us back into old things, deceive us or distract us. It is so important to read God’s word every day. It’s like food. We can’t live without it! With the truth of God’s word in our hearts, we are ready to face the battle! “Thy word have I hidden in my heart that I may not sin against you” Ps. 119:11
Love, Alisa
NOTE: I am not sure which member wrote the following devotional. My best guess is Alisa.
Love (when it hurts) [04-20-2001]
Matt 5:43 You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.
Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to be loving. We all have bad days when nothing goes right and all we want to do is just crawl in bed and go back to sleep. God wants us to be bigger than that. As Christians, we must set an example for others to follow. Think of a time when someone you know really hurt your feelings and made you upset. Maybe they lied to you, stole from you, made fun of you, or maybe they just gave you dirty looks in school and made you feel uncomfortable. How did you respond to them afterwards? Did you ignore them? Did you try to hurt them back? OR….. did you show them love?? Jesus says in Matt5:46-“If you love those who love you, what reward have you? “ It is easy to love people who love you back. The real test comes when they DON’T love you back. As hard as it may seem, when someone does something to hurt you, you need to be the bigger one and love them as God loves us. Think about all of the times we sin and hurt God. No matter how much we hurt Him, his love for us NEVER changes. Jesus was mocked, lied to, betrayed, beaten and spit on, yet his love for those same people who hurt him never changed. He always showed love, even when Judas turned him over to be killed with a kiss. Jesus stilled called him ‘friend’. Put yourself in Jesus’ situation. He had it worse than any of us and yet He is still the perfect example of unconditional love. Jesus’ commandment to us is “love one another as I have loved you”. He doesn’t just say to love your friends, family and the people who you like. He commands us to love EVERYONE. Let’s work on our hearts. Remember, the next time you feel yourself getting angry at someone, take a deep breath and show them the love that God shows us everyday.
